"West's greatest talent has always been his ability to lead as a genius creative director. From soaring choirs to redemptive synths to even a wailing Kenny G solo—the music itself is stunning" - Esquire says in a review of Kanye West's new album 'Jesus is King. NME writes how "‘Jesus Is King’ lacks the goofball […]
Scottish composer Anne Meredith has a career in experimental classical music (soundtracks, fashion campaigns, etc.), and 'FIBS' is her second album in pop music. It's luxurious and easy-listening, and critics like it: "Fibs is brimming with contrary combinations, irreverent genre-bending and serious innovation" - Guardian; "Wonderful big bang" - Brooklyn Vegan; "The chasms between hulking […]
They've got Lebanese rock band Mashrou’ Leila with their video 'Roman' ("strength that celebrates Muslim women"), Radiohead with 'Lotus Flower' ("if it’s a risk, that’s probably a good thing”, Thom Yorke later said), Danny Brown with 'Grown Up' because it "highlights the guileless joy that anchors his music", Robyn and her 'Call Your Girlfriend', FKA […]
'Jesus is King' did come out today, it is, as expected, gospel-heavy, not that much big-sounding as his previous albums, a lot of Christian themes, quite a few mentions of "Jesus". No reviews yet, just announcements (Rolling Stone, NPR, Pitchfork, Independent does a track-by-track, not really a review), critics are trying to get to the […]
Coldplay have shared their video for 'Orphans', one of the songs from their new album 'Everyday Life', coming out November 22. The clip takes a behind-the-scenes look at the songwriting and recording process for 'Orphans'. A joyous song, a nice video, watch it below. Coldplay released another track, 'Arabesque', with Femi Kuti and his band […]
Experimental hip-hop duo TNGHT announced a new EP, 'II', coming out November 12 through Warp Records, which will be their first album in seven years. Their label says Hudson Mohawke and Lunice have, in the meantime, "collected more equipment, made a couple hits, own bigger speakers, loaded a thousand flutes into FL Studio”, as Fact Magazine reports. Lunice […]
Texan psychedelic rock band The Well premiered their new video for 'Raven', a black and white trippy footage of band headbanging and lin-synching. Good video, but the song is way stronger. Watch the video below, listen to the album 'Death and Consolation', released in April, here.
Slowthai's favourite album of the 2010s is 'Die Lit' by Playboi Carti because it is "our generation’s hardcore music". To Weyes Blood it's Connan Mockasin’s 'Caramel', "a progressive concept album with some beautiful sadness sprinkled in between". "A whopper and hella refined" - Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs said about her choice, 'Silence Yourself' […]
"This EP has always been like my little doll, my little buddy. It's on such a sincere level for me. I need these songs" - Renée LoBue of the New York dream-pop band Elk City says about band's latest EP, 'Souls in Space'. A stand-out song from it is 'Pity of a Rose', an elegant […]
"As soon as we started playing together, we created some kind of mad and beautiful storm“ - Ed Harcourt tells the NME about a new super-group Loup GarouX he started with Gorillaz and Senseless Things‘ drummer Cass Browne and The Feeling bassist Richard Jones. Harcourt himself is a past Mercury nominee, producer, and Libertines collaborator. The band […]
The critics say that HBO's series adaption of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic comic 'Watchmen' is better than the movie, and it seems the same goes for the soundtrack. Brooklyn Vegan says Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘ score for the series is "terrific, splitting the difference between the more ambient work they’ve done for films like 'The Social […]
The David Crosby documentary 'Remember My Name' is out this week, and in honor of its release, SPIN is premiering a clip with the rock icon describing his most intense music experience. Crosby was at a John Coltrane concert, really stoned, "and on the verge of a freak out" so he decided to hide out […]
Japanese pop-metal band Babymetal debuted at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums chart with their latest full-length, 'Metal Galaxy', which makes them the first Asian act to top that particular tally. They sold 28,000 units during its first week of release in the United States, which was also good enough for No. 13 on […]
The world's biggest nice-guy band are moving forward with their innovative marketing strategy for their latest album - Coldplay's third step was revealing the tracks for 'Everyday Life' in North Wales local newspaper Daily Post. An advert for the album sat alongside ones for a fridge-freezer, bales of hay and a divan bed, BBC reports. […]
Madonna kicked off her Madame X Tour with 16 sold-out shows at Brooklyn’s Howard Gilman Opera House, selling 31,401 tickets, which made her $9.6 million, Billboard reports. Averaging 1.963 tickets and $601,985 per show over a month, tickets for the new tour ranged from $757 on the high end to $50. The average ticket sold […]
BBC reports about Algerian pop singer Raja Meziane who made music in her homeland criticizing the regime, but had to emigrate in 2015 when she settled in the Czech Republic, where she continues to make music about the Algerian political system. Her video 'Allo le Système!' has over 36 million views on YouTube, and this […]
Public Enemy's frontman Chuck D will receive the 2019 Woody Guthrie Prize for his career-long dedication to shining light on social issues, specifically Black issues, through his music and writing. Named for American folk singer Woody Guthrie, the prize honors artists who utilize their various talents to advocate for people without a platform. All Hip […]
Some delightfully bizarre, punk-inflected jams - Fact Magazine says about the new OOIOO. 'Nijimusi' will be Japanese experimental rockers' first album in six years, and it features a conventional rock set up of two guitars, bass, and drums. It's coming out on January 17. First the song from it below.
"Great Grandpa are nothing if not ambitious. The perpetual push to do better, both artistically and personally, is what drives a lot of 'Four Of Arrows'" - Stereogum writes about second album by the Seattle band Grand Grandpa (they call themselves "snack rock"). What they do is "they blend country twang and emo catharsis into songs […]
Guardian discovered São Paulo's underground music scene, bands playing in the shadow of reactionary politics by the new president Jair Bolsonaro. Electro-punx Deafkids say they are "not interested in cultivating nihilism… We are more interested in trying to think of other ways to say yes, of other things and other practices to embrace and other […]
On 1 March next year 10km of Perth’s Canning Highway will be closed for eight hours to host the world’s longest music festival stage - 10 semi-trailers, eight topped with live bands playing AC/DC songs, will be taking over the highway’s southern portion, between Canning Bridge and Fremantle, marking the 40th anniversary of Bon Scott's […]
More than 350 people, predominantly women, have contacted the UK Musician's Union, detailing cases of harassment, discrimination and abuse of power. The complaints included rape and sexual abuse - but more than four in five (85%) of the victims did not report the incidents "because they think they won't be listened to or they won't […]
'Old Town Road' has been certified 10-times platinum after selling 10 million units, which makes it the fastest in history to reach diamond status. Earlier this year, Lil Nas X broke the record with the country/hip-hop crossover hit for the longest streak of No. 1 placements on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, sitting at No. 1 […]
"Human beings and nature are connected. What we’re trying to do is imitate the sound of the water, and the sound of the wind. Nature is right in our voices” - Jaya from the Mongolian hard-rock band The Hu tells in a Guardian interview about what his band is about. The four of them play […]
'Sonic Futures: How Technology is Guiding Electronic Music' is an original mini-documentary that explores British technological innovation in electronic music, done by Fact Magazine in association with the British Council. Vicky Clarke, Lee Gamble, Venus Ex Machina, and queer club collective Tremors talk about working with machines, creating new utopias and whether we should be afraid […]
"More people are listening to orchestral music through video games than ever before in the history of recorded music” Irish composer and conductor Eímear Noone makes an obvious, albeit interesting point about classical music today in Guardian interview. She worked on games such as 'World of Warcraft', 'Diablo III' and 'Hearthstone', and describes how there […]
American metal-gaze come-backers Chrome Waves made a cover of Nick Cave's 'Push the Sky Away', very atmospheric and intense (listen below). The song is coming on their new EP featuring three new original songs and three covers, others being Slowdive’s 'When the Sun Hits' and Nirvana’s 'Something In The Way', both done in the similar […]
Spotify Family Mix “is simultaneously bringing my family together and tearing it apart”, one Twitter user wrote about a new plan for a shared Spotify account where family members can see everybody else's most played tracks. One other said “I have never felt so exposed", and then there are some people saying it is the […]
It's the Quietus, so don't expect any of the biggest names, only the alternative once. The best metal from October, as tQ heard it, is Dawn Ray’d album 'Behold Sedition Plainsong' - "one of the most lyrically astute black metal records ever recorded". Another one is Blut Aus Nord's 'Hallucinogen' because it "flows astonishingly well as […]
"Music feels like a barricade at times and anything creative feels like it could be hard to get into. But it can happen for you" - Toby L from the London indie-label Transgressive Records tells the BBC. They started out with just 1.000 pounds, and are still working 15 years later. One of the biggest names […]
Spinal Tap were a fake band constructed for a movie ('This Is Spinal Tap'), yet not being real didn't prevent them from recording two albums and going on a tour. Others followed, like Stillwater from Cameron Crowe's 'Almost Famous', 'That Thing You Do!’s the Wonders, 'Under the Silver Lake’s Jesus and the Brides of Dracula, and MTV's 2gether. The Ringer discusses the nature of fake bands with the people behind some of them - including Crowe, Zooey Deschanel, Andy Samberg, and Emily Haines.
Bands from all corners of metal are creating ferocious music that offers new perspectives on discrimination, race, gender and sexuality - Guardian reports on the changing face of the world's most controversial genre. The change is being fronted by podcasts On Wednesdays We Wear Black and Hell Bent for Metal, online communities like Alt Together, and fanzines such as Blkgrlswurld and Tear It Down, as well as by bands such as Nova Twins (dealing with misogyny and racial microaggressions), Life Of Agony (fronted by a transwoman), Tetrarch (fronted by African-American female metal guitarist), Pupil Slicer (discussing issues such as transgender healthcare) etc.
The desktop version of Spotify now contains play counts for every track on every album available. InsideHook took a chance to find songs with a small number of plays, which deserve to be played much more, like Joni Mitchell's 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' and Metallica's 'The Struggle Within'.
In the past year, pop-punk has made its comeback with the help of hip-hop crossovers by 4kGoldn and iann, Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker, MOD SUN, Trippie Red etc. Also, TikTok, good at nostalgia and promoting subcultures, also helped out bringing pop-punk back. Consequence gets a closer look.
Author Oli Freke released his news book 'Synthesizer Evolution: From Analogue to Digital (and Back)', a written celebration of the impact of synths on music and culture. Freke offers a comprehensive and meticulously researched directory of every major synthesizer, drum machine and sampler made between 1963 and 1995. For Mix Mag, he chose the 10 most influential synthesizers.
Michael Jackson’s image was worth just $4 million at the time of his death in 2009, a U.S. tax court judge ruled, far below the $161 million valuation sought by the IRS. the AP reports. The Jackson estate, however, filled out a tax return in which it pegged the value of his image at $2,105 - roughly the same, the judge noted, as a “heavily used 20-year-old Honda Civic". Judge Mark Holmes sided with the government on the value of Jackson's music catalog, pegging it at $107 million.
The Atlantic follows the unusual life story of the song 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' by the American folk singer John Denver. The magazine calls it "an ode to an uncomplicated vision of the United States", which, however, found fertile ground in China and South Korea.
"I am convinced the labels won the war against piracy when they stopped fighting it... Record companies spent 10 years making a dog’s dinner of trying to solve piracy, and then spent 10 years letting go of the old vine and reaching out to the new vine of streaming" - Will Page, Spotify’s former chief economist, says in Rolling Stone interview. The history is repeating, Page believes - "now, because of Covid, everyone is staring at their Napster moment". Page has published a book 'Tarzan Economics' where he lays out eight principles for entrepreneurship in the rapid-fire digital era.
Lego released a streaming-only album 'White Noise' which was made by the Lego pieces being poured out of tubs, sifted through and clicked together. Lego’s “head of creative” Primus Manokaran describes the streaming-only album as “a collection of soundscapes” designed to promote relaxation and mindfulness. Manokaran told Guardian that producing the album was “like composing with 10,000 tiny instruments”.
Boston journalist Larry Katz has digitized his collection of 1,000+ interviews he made in three decades with musicians such as David Bowie, Prince, Bob Marley, Alanis Morissette, Mariah Carey, and, obviously, hundreds of others. Find the amazing collection here.
